Cleaning hoses

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lardylarry

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
May 8, 2006
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Canada
how do you guys clean your hoses? I use very long hoses to do large water changes. Over time, muck builds up on the inside walls of these tubes. Same thing with the tubes that go in and out of my uv sterilizer making it less effective. Any suggestions?

Using chemicals doesn't seem very economical given the length of tubes that I have. I tried shuffling gravel and rice inside these tubes but they did no good. I even bought a long string, tied a big knot, and scraped the knot on the inside walls of tube by pulling on both ends but that wasn't very effective. :(
 
Howdy & Welcome to MFK

The cheapest way is to use some old cable, get an old piece of fabric, cut a small hole in it and thread the cable thru the hole. Then hold the two ends of the cable together and push them thru the hose. As you pull it out from the other side, you pull the fabric thru, which thoroughly cleans the hose from the inside. Just adjust the size of the fabic so that is isn't too big or too small.

HarleyK
 
Are you talking about a Python. Ours got very, very gross and the sides were totally green with gunk and algae. To clean it out, I undid all of the connectors, held the two ends together and filled it up with household bleach. After it was filled, I put the two connectors together making rings or tube and let it sit. It was clean the next day. Put it back together, and let the water run through it, and it was fine.
 
I used a combination of both.

Take an aquarium brush (or bottle brush if using a large hose) and attach a string/rope/cable to both ends, thread it thru hose and draw it back and forth thru hose to scrub the inside. Run water in between pulls. Gun patches work well on small diameters. I tied the cables on a long onw between two trees and pulled the tubing back & forth (ghetto, but it worked).

Dr Joe

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Thanks for the replies!

As HarleyK and Dr Joe have suggested, I tried that method before (without the brush though, which I will try) and it did got some of the muck off. How did you guys manage to put the cable/rope through 10+ meters of tube though? Just wriggling it halfway took me more than an hour alone.

RadleyMiller suggested using bleach; how much bleach did you use? Wouldn't that require a lot of bleach?
 
lardylarry;545595; said:
How did you guys manage to put the cable/rope through 10+ meters of tube though?
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10 m??? Geez, you have your tank in the living room and the filter in the garage? :grinno:
I would try a rod or stable wire with a loop for attaching the cable. Push the rod tru, then pull for the cable. Or use a serious fishing weight with fishing line, let it drop thru the hose and pull the cable tru with the fishing line.

Or set your filter up closer to your tank ;)

HarleyK
 
Harley, I think he is talking about a Python for water changes and a a quartz sleive for the sterilizer. The sterilizer, you have to take it apart and pull out the sleeve. Speaking of which, I have to do that tommorow. I just poured full strength bleach into it. It was a 60 foot long Python and I maybe used 2 cups of bleach. The volume of water held by a Python is very minimal.
 
Potts050;545838; said:
I find that prevention is the best solution to this problem.
I always hang up my hoses so they drain completely between use. This could be a problem with a 10m hose though unless you cut it into 2.5m lenghts and put couplers on the ends.

http://www.grnleafinc.com/Catalog/GLGatorGarden.html
Click to expand...

True, but you never get all of the water out of them. The suction on pythons is not very good and when you put it on a hose reel, you always end up with some water in the bottom.
 
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